Kasuga Taisha Shrine

In a passage in a deep woods, as I walked, the sand went into the air and made my black jeans white. Hundreds of traditional lanterns are at the both ends of the passage. Those lanterns are donations from worshipers of the god who I was supposed to see at the end of this passage. It was a long way but greenness of trees in May blessed me and I got encouraged to keep moving.

Kasuga Taisha Shrine has been located in the east in Nara, Japan for more than 1,300 years, when the imperial court settled and established the palace called Heijo-Kyo there in 710 AD. One of the most powerful noble crans; Fujiwara-shi cran established the shrin halfway up in the mountain and invited some powerful deities from other bigger shrines based in Chiba and Nara as their gurdian. Being such a traditional shrine with the long history, Kasuga Taisha Shrine was registered as UNESCO's World Heritage as one of the "cultral heritages of the ancient capital city of Japan in Nara" together with other historical buildings in the same Heijo-Kyo area such as Todai-ji temple, Kofuku-ji temple.

Tori-i Gate

In the middle of the passage, there was a gate called "Tori-i". Tori-i gate is a boundary between the world we live in and the sacred sanctuary the deities live in. Once you get through the gate, you will be in the sacred area. Following our custom, I bowed one time in front of the gate before entering into the sacred area to say hello to the gods; you will not open the door and enter into somebody's house without ringing a bell/chime unless you are allowed to do so. The Tori-i gate is the first door to the gods' residence in the shrine and it is better to bow to say hello to the gods instead of the chime.

Even after the gate, there was a main entrance to the sanctuary. Colored by red and white, there was a tall entrance. This is the second gate to the sanctuary. In the same manner as I did at the Tori-i gate, I bowed once before entering.

Since Fujiwara cran was very closed to the imperial court due to aristcracy, the shrine was very closed to the imperial family. Even now, the current imperial majesties of Japan send their ambassadors to the shrine for its ritual/festivals, though there are no aristcracy by the cran any longer (Currently, the imperial family does not hold any political power in Japan).

The main alter

There are four deities enshrined in the main alter of the shrine; Take-Mikaduchi,  Futsunushi, Ama-no-koyane and Himegami. Take-Mikaduchi is a god who is said to have conquered Japan in the myth, Futsunushi is his sword which is divinized. Ama-no-koyane is said to be the Fujiwara's ancestor and the gurdian of our language and Himegami is his wife. The four deities are collectivelly called "Kasuga-no-kami".

Deers are a devine subbordinate in the shrine because it is said that the deities rode a deer to the shrine. Therefore, deers are allowed to roam around the city without cages (at night, they will be in cages for safety). You may be surprised that there are many untied deers roaming in the public area around the shrine (called Nara Park) at the first glance. They seldom attack people exept their mating season; they become offensive when they are in the mating season). Drivers should watch out to avoid killing them.

Every 20 years, they renovate their buldings to keep the shrine clean and divine. Looking at several historical drawings and picture scrolls about Kasuga Taisha Shrine, the main alter looks exactly the same as the current structure of the buildings. Namely, people has kept the shrine in the same way as its original structure for the 1,300 years. The next renovation will be commenced in 2013 and the shrine is now in its preparation.

You can spend a cozy time there if you are more intersted in natural sites than some amusement places such as Universal Studio Japan and if you like history. If you would like to take historical/religionous steps in Japan, this place may be worthwhile to visit.